What is Python?

Python is an agile object-oriented programming language that is continuing to build momentum… popular with the open source, LAMP and Linux/all BSD/Solaris/MacOS X crowd (and even Java and Win32 programmers) for applications and web development — especially for Python’s frameworks that compete with Rails: Django (including Google App Engine), TurboGears, Pylons, Zope and Plone (all RIA platforms), plus Trac and Mailman, the wiki+issue-tracker and popular mailing list manager, respectively. Web developers know about JSON already, but did you know that it maps nearly identically to Python’s dictionary/hash type? Of course Python can do XML/ReST/XSLT, multithreading, SQL/databases, GUIs, hardcore math/science, Internet client/server systems and networking (heard of Twisted?), GIS/ESRI, QA/test, automation frameworks, plus system administration tasks too! Python can also be found at the heart of the OLPC. If Python doesn’t do what you want, you can extend it in C/C++, Java, or C# (and even VB.NET)! Have you noticed the huge growth in the number of jobs on Monster and Dice that list Python as a desired skill?

With Python, you can design just about any app that most modern languages enable, but it’s way more fun! You can code as fast as you think! Because of Python’s simple yet robust syntax, it’s a great tool to teach programming (heard of Alice before?) with as well as a solid (first) language to learn for non-programmers and other technical staff. Come find out why Google, Yahoo!, Disney, Cisco, YouTube, BitTorrent, LucasFilm/ILM, VMware, NASA, Ubuntu, Slide, and Red Hat all use Python! This seminar is designed by Wesley Chun, software engineer, technical trainer, and author of Prentice-Hall’s bestseller Core Python Programming, its video training course, Python Fundamentals (LiveLessons DVD), and co-author of Python Web Development with Django, for those wanting to find out what Python is all about and what you can do with it! Totally informal, this is a chance for current users to share their experiences and newbies to ask questions. We are particularly interested in hearing from newbies as well as old-timers who also have experience w/Perl, Java, PHP, C++, Ruby. This BOF would especially be useful for those wanting to get a clue about what Python is since there is no beginners’ tutorial this year.

We have had great success and feedback giving this seminar in the past, such as at other conferences as well as to academia: